As a themed variant, A Game of Thrones Catan plays a lot like the original. Terrain tiles produce resources that players can trade and use to build roads, settlements, and keeps. Subtitled “Brotherhood of the Watch”, though, the board in this version represents an area of land that belongs to the Brotherhood and is known as the Gift. Toward one end of the board is the wall. Behind it, miniature figures representing Wildlings slowly gather, eventually breaking through to fill sections of the Gift (making tiles unproductive).

Through the game, the players also have the opportunity to call on help from characters of the A Song of Ice and Fire fiction series, each with a special ability, such as trading resources or chasing off Wildlings.

One way to win A Game of Thrones Catan is, like in the original, be the first player to 10 victory points, mostly acquired through improvements in the Gift. Should the game, however, end prematurely with the Wildlings breaking through the wall three times, the winner and new Lord Commander is the player with the most guards remaining.